1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a low-cost feed roller structure which can reliably transport a photosensitive material while maintaining the accuracy of the roller, and is preferably used in, for example, a printer-processor and the like.
2. Description of the Related Art
For example, a plurality of processing tanks which contain processing solutions or water for color development, bleach-fixing, rinsing, stabilization, and the like are provided in a photosensitive material processing apparatus (e.g., a printer-processor and the like) serving as an automatic processor. As a photosensitive material such as photographic printing paper or the like is successively conveyed into these processing tanks, the photosensitive material is processed.
Namely, a processing rack provided with a multiplicity of feed roller pairs is inserted into each processing tank. These feed rollers nip and transport the photosensitive materials for processing.
Recently, however, the use of photosensitive materials with broad widths, which is becoming increasingly desired, necessitates that the roller surface length, i.e. the length in the direction of the axis of the feed roller be lengthened so as to process these broad photosensitive materials.
However, if a conventional roller, which is formed in a pipe shape by extrusion molding of a resin material, is simply lengthened to broaden the roller surface length, then the concern arises that the deflection of the central part of the feed roller will become too marked and transportation failure, inclination, meandering, and the like of a photosensitive material may occur. A highly rigid metal pipe, rod or the like may be inserted into the core of the feed roller to increase the rigidity thereof so that the deflection can be reduced, however, if a metal pipe or the like is inserted into a feed roller, the manufacturing cost of the feed roller is disadvantageously increased.